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Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles
Squirt Frog and the Evolving Tadpoles was a moderately successful band that Rob Ferguson played bass. The other members were Justin Nachman, lead guitar and main singer and would have been Squirt Frog if the band was set up that way; Charlie Storer, drummer; and Biff Thorvald rhythm guitar. The band sort of congealed in Santa Barbara and toured the country ever since. While the band mates wouldn't get rich, it was a living. When Rob wondered what type of music they performed, Charlie suggested somewhere between Frank Zappa and Al Stewart. Rob wasn't convinced but he didn't have a better answer.Eruption, pg. 31, HC. The band was successful enough that it made more money from iTunes and the sale of physical CDs than from touring. It wasn't Michael Jackson or Mariah Carey money but it would allow them to take the extra time to get the next release just right. However, it didn't pay enough to hire some roadies so they had to load and unload their equipment themselves.Ibid, pg. 74. Meantime, touring helped pay the bills both from the gate and selling autographed CDs, it did let them promote their latest album Out of the Pond and was just too much fun. The band was big enough that they needed two SUVs to carry both the members and their equipment.Ibid, pg. 73. Just after Ferguson's parents broke up, the band headed north, playing Portland, Pasco and Spokane in one week.Ibid, pgs. 30, 33. After that show, the banded headed west the next day to Missoula, Montana.Ibid, pg. 36. It continued across the country eventually performing in New York City.Ibid, pgs. 121-126. From there, they head north into New England becoming marooned in Guilford, Maine due to an unusually early and harsh winter after the supervolcano erupted.Implicit not explicitly stated. See e.g. Ibid, pg. 398. The following summer, the band would play the occasional acoustical sets in a public park to an appreciative audience.All Fall Down, pg. 106, HC. Rob discovered just how hard up townspeople were for entertainment the following summer (two years after the eruption) when a group of pre-teens, who would have never heard of them, begged for a park concert. The band did play, on occasion, at town hall meetings but this inspired Rob to suggest a small tour of local towns to his band mates.Ibid, pgs. 141-142. When Rob married Lindsey Kincaid, a local schoolteacher, the band played at the reception with a local kid filling in for Rob on bass.Ibid, pg. 368. Songs Created by Band Members * "Brainfreeze" - Written by Rob Ferguson. After a while, the band grew tired of the song (including Rob) and stopped playing it and refused requests for it.Eruption, pg. 126, HC. * "Came Along Too Late" - Written by Charlie Storer about Alexander the Great.Ibid., pgs. 401-402, HC. * "Impossible Things Before Breakfast" - Song from the band's album Out of the Pond and never released as a single so only strong fans knew it.Ibid., pg. 74, HC. * "Justinian II" - It was about an ancient Emperor of Byzantium who got his nose chopped off. * "Pleasures" - A more conventional "rock 'n' roll" songs in the band's repertoire so they usually opened with it.Ibid., pg. 35, HC. * "Punctuated Equilibrium" - Written by Justin Nachman. It was about Stephen Jay Gould's attack on classical Darwinism.Ibid., pg. 36, HC. References * Category:Bands